Contemplated private placement of new shares in Rocksource ASA

Rocksource ASA ("Rocksource" or the "Company") has retained SEB Enskilda, Pareto Securities and FirstEnergy Capital as Joint Lead Managers (the “Managers”) to advise on and effect a private placement of up to NOK 360 mill (~USD 60 mill) after the close of Oslo Stock Exchange today.

The price of the private placement will be determined through an accelerated book-building process. The indicative book-building range has been set to NOK 3.0 to market price. The minimum subscription will be EUR 50,000. The Managers have secured substantial pre-subscriptions for the private placement.

The book-building period will commence today (29 April 2010) at 17:30 local Norwegian time and close on 30 April 2010 at 08.00 local Norwegian time. The Company may, however, at any time resolve to close or extend the book-building period at its own discretion.

The placement will be directed towards existing shareholders, Norwegian investors and international institutional investors. Up to 35 million shares will be allocated based on the existing authorisation to issue shares. Allocation of the shares exceeding 35 mill shares will be conditional upon approval by the AGM in the Company, expected to take place on or around 26 May 2010. The private placement may be followed up by a repair issue towards Rocksource shareholders as at 29 April 2010 that are not allocated shares in the placement. The size of the repair issue is expected to be limited to a maximum of 20 % of the shares allocated in the contemplated private placement.

The proceeds from the private placement will be used to strengthen Rocksource's financial flexibility and to fund its 2010 / 2011 exploration program which is expected to include 10-12 high impact wells with exposure to more than 400 mmboe of net risked resources, based on current equity interests.

Rocksource has prepared an updated company presentation that has been published on the Company's website www.rocksource.com

The presentation can be found here: http://www.rocksource.com/presentations/category157.html

Oslo, 29 April 2010
Rocksource ASA

 
Trygve Pedersen
CEO

+47 90 09 77 41